DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IS USELESS

One would think the lessons of 9/11/2001 would not have been so easily or so soon forgotten.  In the aftermath, we discovered that individual agencies of the Federal Government had knowledge of individual pieces of a puzzle that, had there been communication between the agencies might have painted a fuller picture and prevented the airliner attacks.  It is that discovery that let to the formation of the Department of Homeland Security.  

Here we are in 2013, and in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombings we are discovering that individual agencies were in possession of individual facts about the Tsarnaev family that, had there been communication among the agencies may well have prevented that tragedy.  What this tells me is that DHS is not working. 

Indeed, there have been countless gaffes, errors and omissions under the Janet Napolitano rule of the DHS.  If, as she admits, DHS knew of Tamerlan's trip to Russia, why didn't the Boston Police Department, which is there on the ground 24 hours a day?  There was that scandalous assertion by male employees of sexual harassment at DHS headquarters.  There is the claim that DHS has been exporting more illegal aliens than ever, countered by testimony that the agency is counting those attempting to cross the border and being turned back as a deportation.  There's the bungled job after Super Storm Sandy.  

There's the allegation that her department engages in "selective prosecution" of border violations.  We know that the agency has contracted the purchase of close to 2 billion rounds of ammunition, thereby drying up the supply to citizens and law enforcement agencies.  Her agency justifiably caught flak for insinuating that members of the right and members of organizations such as the American Legion needed extra scrutiny in respect to terrorism and national security.  Her agency released thousands of illegal aliens from prison early; many of them had been convicted of felonies and no local law enforcement agencies were advised of the releases before they occurred.  She once alleged that crossing the border illegally is not a crime.  There is a long litany of controversial statements and decisions by Napolitano.  

DHS is an agency that was conceived to bring national security issues under one roof in order to streamline our defenses against terrorism and to bolster our domestic readiness to deal with security and disaster issues.  It does not appear to me that the objective has been achieved; it does appear to me that we are spending billions of dollars on an agency that has proven itself to be as useless as teats on a boar hog, (sorry for that comparison, Janet). 

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.